English

Generalized gaugings and the field-antifield formalism

High Energy Physics - Theory 2011-01-13 v2

Abstract

We discuss the algebra of general gauge theories that are described by the embedding tensor formalism. We compare the gauge transformations dependent and independent of an invariant action, and argue that the generic transformations lead to an infinitely reducible algebra. We connect the embedding tensor formalism to the field-antifield (or Batalin-Vilkovisky) formalism, which is the most general formulation known for general gauge theories and their quantization. The structure equations of the embedding tensor formalism are included in the master equation of the field-antifield formalism.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1001.2560,
  title  = {Generalized gaugings and the field-antifield formalism},
  author = {Frederik Coomans and Jan De Rydt and Antoine Van Proeyen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1001.2560},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

42 pages; v2: some clarifications and 1 reference added; version to be published in JHEP